


The Traveller in Black

by Leonawriter



Series: Kid!Crow [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 13:39:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/774840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charting Kiryu's journey from his revival after the Signer war to shortly before the events of 'The King Has An Orange Shadow'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Traveller in Black

After being revived from a half-life with the Dark Signers, Kiryu Kyousuke had fully intended to get out of Domino and Satellite altogether.  

He hadn't cared where he went, or what he did, as long as he never had to return, or face what he'd done.

Unfortunately for his intentions, Yuusei and the others had found him first, and made sure he was 'looked after', that he 'understood that they forgave him'.  Kiryu couldn't understand how.  Or why they were going to such lengths.

Carly couldn't remember a thing of what she'd gone through, and he thought her lucky.  No gnawing guilt, no memory of screams that his past self had taken delight in, no waking up in the middle of the night with the memory of having almost killed her closest friend still fresh in her mind.  The things she had done would have haunted her, as they had him, and he was grateful on her behalf that they did not.

Jack, of course, did not feel the same way.  Kiryu could see clearly how he felt for the girl, and that he often wished she could remember what they went through together.  Whenever he implied anything of the sort Kiryu... didn't say anything, but he scowled, and talked even less than he had before.

Misty tried to talk to him, to bring him out and make him see what kind of place Neo Domino was, but all he could see was everything that he and everyone in Satellite had been deprived of.  Everything that was good.  Everything that they might also have destroyed had Yuusei, Jack, Aki and the others not stood in their way.

Yuusei tried showing him what they were doing to Satellite, but the memories pounded at him, visions of conquests and hideouts and time upon time running down the beat up streets, to or from enemy duelists and Security.  All being torn down, to pretend it had never happened.

History was written by the victors, after all, and he was just hanging on Yuusei and Jack's coat tails.   _They_ were the ones who had saved Satellite.  From  _him_.

He deserved none of it.  He  _wanted_ none of it.

Two months after the Signer war had ended, he left.

His hair grew out to his shoulders on the journey to nowhere in particular, and the coat Jack had let him keep protected him from the wind, but the cold still got in, and black didn't take long to fade to muddy browns in some places, and greys in others.  His feet ached, but it was nothing.  It was all nothing.

The city became suburbs, which became towns and then villages until there were hardly any settlements left, and he often went hungry, went thirsty, but it was nothing.  He'd done it before.  He'd endure it, or he wouldn't.  It didn't really matter any more.

The only personal possession he had on him was his deck.  Yuusei had built him a customised duel disk, but he'd left it with them - the last duel disk he'd used had been during  _that_ time, and the memory still burned within him.  The cards themselves were still the same.  He hadn't felt that he was worth finding new ones, because as far as Kiryu was concerned, he wasn't out of Hell yet.  He'd simply moved from one part to another.

By the time he reached Crashtown, he was weak, thin, brain-addled and hardly understood what was happening when they took him in.  They gave him food and water, carefully to make sure they didn't make his condition worse, and asked no questions.

As soon as he was well enough, he took his leave of them, but didn't leave the area.  Instead, he watched.

Several days later, he arrived at sunset, coat fluttering in the wind and playing a tune on the harmonica that someone had gifted him when they found out he could play, and all activity stopped.

"Choose your best to duel me," he had said.  "If they win, you may take me.  If I win instead... there will be no more duels until this time tomorrow."

Some fool had agreed, and the others had been bound to the promise.

He had, of course, won the duel.  That person had gone to the mine, and Kiryu had gone back to the place where he was staying, and as promised, there were no more duels... no more men taken to the mountain, into the mine... until the next day.  And then the next, and then the next...

By the time Yuusei found him, 'Duel Time', as it had come to be called, had become his everything, and yet at the same time, meant nothing at all.  The duel itself wasn't fun, for he found no enjoyment in it any longer.  He had nothing but his own life to give, and that was not worth much.  So, he duelled.  Day after day.

His life was hardly a 'life', more so than when he had been a Dark Signer.  Losing and going into the mountain himself... meant nothing to him.  What change would it bring?  Another routine, that was all.

But Yuusei hadn't been satisfied with that.  He'd followed him, hounded him, tried time and time again to remind him what Kiryu used to be like, how full of life he should be and how it was still worth living, and when that didn't work he forcefully saved him from the mine which Yuusei himself had landed them both in.

And then came Nico and West, who  _believed_ in him, and Kiryu Kyousuke shouldn't even  _be believed in any more_ , not since before his arrest, because all of that was in the past.  But they did.  They saw something in him, something they thought was worth scavenging from the trash, and even if he didn't care for his own life, he'd make sure they lived theirs, that they survived and were going to be okay.

And then...   _then_... someone had died.  Someone important.  

Nico and West's father.

And the man hadn't died because of Kiryu, or even as a result of Kiryu's arrival at the town.  He'd come to Crashtown willing to die, and he'd found instead something to strive for - and now...

Now he was entrusting Nico and West to Kiryu.

Kiryu Kyousuke had a purpose again.  

People who believed in him.  Those who returned for him.  Those who never gave up on him.  Things he'd thought he'd lost forever were being returned; maybe not in the same way as they'd left, but perhaps that was for the best.  He was a different person.  He'd survive, now, and find a new smile.

Kiryu was... maybe for the first time,  _satisfied_.

He chose to stay in what they'd unanimously decided to rename 'Satisfaction Town' in memory of his old team, for a further month, helping to rebuild the torn-down homes and shops, put a semblance of structure and order in place.  The people saw him as their personal hero, but didn't put him up on a pedestal; in this way at least nothing had changed from the time he'd arrived.  He learned things from the people he was only now getting to truly know, useful skills such as how to file the paperwork necessary to be a legal guardian, crafts such as bricklaying and painting and jewellery making as well as how to laugh, sing (often badly, under the influence of alcohol), and remember the good times, share them, enjoy himself again.

He'd been staying in contact with Yuusei and the others - they wouldn't have heard any of him simply cutting himself off again - and because of that, at first he hadn't thought the call was any different from any of the others he'd had.

Yuusei asked him how things were going, how Nico and West were, what had happened since they'd last talked.  Kiryu had asked the same of Yuusei, and talk had found its way to the WRGP that the other and Jack were competing in.

"Actually, Kiryu... I was wondering if I could ask a favour."

As much as he owed Yuusei, his eyes narrowed somewhat in minor suspicion at what that favour might be.

"You see,"Yuusei continued, "to compete, we need three tournament-worthy duelists.  Aki's recently been learning how to drive, but it's new to her.  I wouldn't want to put her in the position of duelling in a high-pressure environment when she isn't yet fully confident."

Kiryu nodded, but then raised an eyebrow at the screen.

"So what do you want me to do?"

Yuusei smiled.  One of those small ones Kiryu noticed more and more, when he used to smile bigger and wider before the team split up.  A pang of guilt made itself known, and he squashed it down before Yuusei could notice.

"We were wondering if you wouldn't mind coming back here, joining the team.   It'd only be for the WRGP, and you could go back to Satisfaction Town once it's done."

"In case you hadn't noticed, I don't exactly have a D-Wheel, Yuusei."

On the other end, Yuusei laughed.

"That doesn't matter.  We got the measurements from your old one before we sent it off for pieces; we didn't think you'd want to keep that old thing around any longer than necessary.  You know," he added quietly, "we were going to do this anyway, when you..."

Left.  

Why wasn't he surprised?

He sighed, though, a small smile on his own face as he looked back at his friend.

"It looks to me like you have everything sorted out, in that respect, but how do you know I'm going to agree?"

"Because!"  The voice was Jack's, and from a short distance away, enough to sound muffled over the line.  "If you don't, we'll tell those kids of yours that you missed out on a chance to show them the big city!"

Yuusei rolled his eyes, but Kiryu knew that he was done for.  The moment those two knew where they could have gone, and that their 'nii-sama' could have been  _a part of_... he'd never hear the end of it.

"That's a- a low blow, Jack.  A low blow."

Needless to say, two weeks later he was back in Neo Domino, a wide-eyed Nico and West in tow.


End file.
